A spectacular finale - from 1930

A spectacular finale - from 1930: Bebe Daniels and Everett Marshall sing "My Shining Star". Amazing color and costumes evoke late 20's Broadway Shows by the likes of Ziegfeld etc...

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Bebe
• Daniels
• 1920's
• 1930's
• dance
• Broadway

[matinchiu]

Recently many veteran b&w movies are available "in colour" on dvd, they are, in fact, modern recreation. 

This Dixiana is one of them.

[perfectjazz78]

Your comment is based on a common misconception. The final 20 minutes of this film was filmed in Technicolor process three, which was an early two-color version of Technicolor. In fact, the first Technicolor movie was a silent film, Toll Of The Sea, which was filmed in 1922 in Technicolor process one.

Please google "history of Technicolor" to find the History of Technicolor web site, which gives a detailed history of all pre 1939 color processes. Or just check IMDB for color listings.

[impCaesarAvg]

@perfethactjazz78 And you somehow got the 2-color images onto 3-color Youtube. The results are surprisingly good. Thanks for sharing.

[kraftpr]

What's amazing to me, unless I'm wrong, is that many of these early musical numbers were performed "live" -- the orchestras were there, off camera, sometimes orchestras were part of the "scene", and singers performed as if they were on a live stage. Unlike later filmography, much of which was "taped" pre-recorded, lip-synched. These films give you a feeling that you were in the theater as it happened.

[Nekofemme]

Wow! The girls that danced down the stairs are amazing! Thanks for sharing.

[markstar777]

@perfectjazz78 hey thanx 4 the advice m8. truly fascinating stuff, shame about kodak eh?

[bobparis]

What is most amazing to me is the quality of the sound. Almost all RKO pictures before 1936 have execrable sound tracks. Screechy and distorted, mostly.

The wretched quality came about in the final mixing process. I've heard a dub of the raw music track of "The Carioca" that is high fidelity, and raw music tracks from "Little Women" are the same.

The good sound on this clip is astounding, not because of its age, but because it's RKO.

[sbutler860]

@perfectjazz78 Was Leathernecking a full-length Technicolor movie? According to the IMDb it was only part-color (all prints are allegedly lost so I cannot confirm). Do you have any other info?

[perfectjazz78]

Don't forget Leathernecking

[sbutler860]

@Kinemacolour Bear in mind that in the early days, there were very few Technicolor cameras. First of all, Technicolor produced its own films as a way of demonstrating the product. Therefore, when it came to allocating cameras, the biggest studios tended to get first dibs. But RKO did make one or two full color films that are lost today - The Runaround (1931) and Fanny Foley Herself (also 1931).

[sbutler860]

@perfectjazz78 The first Technicolor movie was in fact The Gulf Between, filmed in 1917, the prints of which are now considered lost. The Toll of the Sea is the earliest surviving Technicolor movie, and even that is not complete.

[parzifal40]

I adore this piece of Hollywood history....thank you so much for posting.  I ordered the movie. Truly a piece from The Golden Era of movie magic.